Oscar-Nominated ‘Captain Phillips’ Actor Barkhad Abdi Is Broke

Black actors don’t get loads of movie offers after they are nominated (or win) Academy Awards, it just doesn’t work that way…

“Captain Phillips” actor Barkhad Abdi, who was nominated for “Best Supporting Actor” at the 2014 Academy Awards (he lost to Jared Leto), is allegedly broke…which comes as no surprise to industry insiders. The Somalian actor was paid $65,000 for his break-out role in “Captain Phillips” (an alleged standard for new actors)–a small piece of the “Captain Phillips” pie that went on to gross $210 million worldwide.

According to the New Yorker, “When Abdi is in Los Angeles to promote the film, he subsists on a per diem, good at the Beverly Hilton, where the studio likes to put him up. The town car is available only for official publicity events. His clothes are loaners. Recently Abdi requested that he be allowed to stay at a commuter hotel near LAX to be closer to his friend, a Somali cabdriver from Minneapolis, who shuttles him around for free.”

Prior to making his big debut, Abdi was directing music videos and driving limousines for his brother’s company in Minneapolis.

Though Abdi has been cast in the forthcoming film “The Place That Hits the Sun,” his rags to rags story is all too common in Hollywood. While White Oscar nominees and winners walk straight out the Hollywood & Highland Center (or whichever venue the Academy Awards take place that year) and onto the set of another film that has great odds of being an Oscar contender next year. “Best Supporting Actress” winner Lupita Nyong’o’s is an extra in Liam Neeson’s latest film “Non-Stop.” Monique hosted the “Love & Hip Hop” reunion after winning “Best Actress” for her role in “Precious.”

Blacks are not equal in the Hollywood machine therefore, it’s no surprise that Abdi is broke.